Departments: Paper

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what mechanisms are in place to ensure his Department's economical use of paper.

Gillian Merron: The Department has a wide range of measures in place to ensure economical use of paper, following the broad policy of "reduce, reuse, recycle" and to meet the new targets for government on sustainable operations.
	Information for the public is increasingly available electronically and a higher percentage than in previous years of new documents are web only publications. When documents are printed, then consideration is given to the types of papers used to ensure they are fit for purpose, indicating the weight and type of the paper to minimise paper use. Any printed publications are printed on 75 per cent. recycled paper. The Department for Transport also leads on the pan Government framework for the provision of recycled paper for printed publications.
	Improved IT has resulted in all the major reference manuals from finance, procurement, the staff handbook and other reference guides to be placed on the internal Intranet site with the presumption that all these reference documents are only available electronically.
	From February 2003, the Department's weekly internal Bulletin has been available online, resulting in considerable paper saving as well as cost savings of £130,000 a year.
	All printers purchased, unless used for specialist processes, are capable of printing on both sides of the paper. Business Units are encouraged to set this facility as the default. Photocopiers used also have this facility.
	All internal stationery and printing paper purchased is 100 per cent. recycled and waste paper is recycled.
	Increasingly business process, from invoicing of payments through to sick absence recording, travel and subsistence claims, are being processed electronically.

Railways: Fares

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has had with the different train companies on proposals to reduce the number of saver fares on the railways; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Harris: No discussions have been held on proposals to reduce the number of Saver fares. All discussions on a simplified fares structure have involved retaining and in some cases expanding the range of flexible off-peak walk-up fares such as Savers.

Railways: Overcrowding

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much of the additional rolling stock being authorised for purchase by his Department to relieve overcrowding he plans to be used on services between Bedfordshire and London; and if he will make a statement.

Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  how much of the additional rolling stock being authorised for purchase by his Department to relieve overcrowding he plans to be used on services between Worcestershire and London; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how much of the additional rolling stock being authorised for purchase by his Department to relieve overcrowding he plans to be used on services between Worcestershire and Birmingham; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Harris: It is too early to say where precisely the additional rolling stock will be used. The deployment of new rolling stock will be agreed with the industry following the publication of the high level output specification and the long term rail strategy this summer, in accordance with the periodic review timetable set out in the Office of Rail Regulation's advice to Minister published in February 2007.

Railways: Standards

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to encourage  (a) Network Rail and  (b) South West Trains to improve its performance; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Harris: There are regular discussions between Stagecoach South West Trains (SSWT) and Network Rail about performance.
	SSWT has a public performance measure (PPM) moving annual average (MAA) of 89.7 per cent. (at February 2007, the last reporting period).
	The Department re-let the new South Western franchise from February 2007; the new franchise agreement has an incremental increase in the performance benchmarks that SSWT will have to meet over the franchise period.
	I have four-weekly Performance Delivery Group meetings with rail industry representatives to discuss rail performance. At these meetings current performance, and steps for improvement, are examined to ensure that improving performance remains a high priority throughout the rail industry.

Road Signs and Markings

David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment his Department has made of the  (a) short-term and  (b) long-term efficacy of interactive road signage in built-up areas for traffic calming purposes.

Stephen Ladyman: Vehicle activated signs (VAS) are designed to address the problem of inappropriate speed at locations where conventional signing has not proved effective. The majority of VAS are therefore placed in rural areas where inappropriate speed is a particular problem, such as on the approach to hazards, bends or junctions.
	TRL Report 548 "Vehicle activated signs—a large scale evaluation", published in 2002 studied the effectiveness of vehicle activated signs (VAS) at over 60 sites on rural roads with a range of speed limits. This found VAS to be effective at reducing vehicle speeds at the approach to isolated hazards or bends and junctions. There was no evidence that the signs became less effective over the three year period of the study.

Afghanistan: Electricity

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether he expects Afghanistan to increase the amount of electricity available through bilateral power purchase by the end of 2010; what progress has been made; and what progress he expects to be made by the end of the year.

Hilary Benn: The latest quarterly progress report issued by the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) indicates that considerable steps have been made towards the Afghanistan Compact benchmark of increasing the amount of electricity available through bilateral power purchase by 2010. Details of this progress, extracted from the report, are listed at Annex A. Given this, we would expect the amount of electricity available through bilateral power purchase to increase by the end of 2010.
	However, the report also indicates that there are serious limitations to measuring progress in the power sector, and states that it is difficult to measure progress in the shorter-term as nearly all of these projects are long-term activities. DFID is not directly engaged in this sector. The lead donors are the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
	In October 2002, USAID committed support for a national irrigation and power rehabilitation programme in conjunction with Afghanistan's Ministry of Energy and Water. The programme is focused on the rehabilitation of the South East Power System (SEPS), a 100 MW power generation and transmission network. It aims to provide low cost and reliable power to 1.7 million residents in Helmand and Kandahar provinces by the end of 2009. Central to this initiative is a commitment to rehabilitate the Kajaki multi-purpose dam, built by USAID in 1953 on the Helmand River.
	The programme is split into phases and will include rehabilitating and upgrading the dam, its power plant and associated transmission network by 2009. The first phase will increase Kajaki's generation capacity to 51 MW. Funding of $150 million has already been allocated for this work. The UK Government, through DFID, may fund smaller projects in the vicinity of the dam as part of a stabilisation programme.
	The UK-led Task Force Helmand (TFH) has been tasked through ISAF with providing security sufficient to enable the resumption and successful completion of the USAID Kajaki Dam project. Security poses a bigger challenge for the UK in Helmand where GoA authority and rule of law is fragile. The UK military is helping to create an enabling environment for development to accelerate, and training the Afghan National Army.
	 Annex A—Progress towards Increasing Power Purchase
	An agreement was signed on 21 February 2006 between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The agreement increases co-operation between the two countries in power transmission, reducing the purchase rate to minimum, continuity in power purchase and improve regulatory framework.
	The Hairatan-Kabul 220 kv transmission line is currently under construction. It is due for completion by the end of 2008. This will be the main line transmitting imported electricity from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to take care of the immediate needs of Kabul.
	A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan in April 2006 on further increase of power purchase. Under the agreement Turkmenistan expressed readiness to increase its electricity export by 300 MW and support the new transmission infrastructure in the North-West (Hirat, Qala-e-Naw, Maimana, Shiberghan and Mazar).
	A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed on 25 June 2006 between Afghanistan and Iran. Part of this MOU covers the provision of electricity to the western border towns of Afghanistan (Farah and Nimroz). I.R. of Iran has agreed to undertake the necessary study of this project.
	In August 2006 Afghanistan became an Observer to the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). The accession report has been prepared by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ECT. Full accession is expected in May 2007.
	In 2006, Afghanistan signed multilateral MOUs on 1,000 MW electricity transit with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Iran. The four countries will meet in Kabul in June 2007 to evaluate the feasibility study which is currently under way. The Kabul sub-station of this project will allow Afghanistan to increase its power purchase.
	In November 2006, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), increasing Afghanistan's power purchase from 70 MW to 300 MW, beginning from October 2008.
	The power purchase agreement between Iran and Afghanistan expires by the end of 21 March 2006. During the Second Joint Economic Commission Meeting of the two countries (27 and 28 December 2006), it was agreed to renew and upgrade the agreement. During the meeting the two countries decided to work on the contract of the construction of transmission line (220 to 230 MW) between Zabul and Farah (survey is already complete). They also discussed extending electricity to the rural areas of Robat Sangi, Gulran and Kishk in Hirat Province.
	India is ahead of schedule on its $100 million Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul line and substations at Chimtala and Doshi—estimated completion date is October 2008.
	The ADB is on schedule for completion of its $75 million Pul-e-Khumri to Shekanbandar line for power from Tajikistan—estimated completion date is March 2009.
	The ADB is on schedule for its $62 million Pule-e-Khumri to Hairatan and Naibabad to Mazar lines for power from Uzbekistan.
	USAID is planning to launch design and planning on its $24 million Mazar to Shebergan line and its $48 million Sheberghan to Turkmenistan line. It has sent a mission to Turkmenistan and the border to study the route and it is working on completing its feasibility study.
	Germany is on schedule for substations at Mazar and Pul-e-Khumri.
	Afghanistan and Tajikistan signed an Inter-Government Agreement in October 2006. It paves the way for the negotiation of the first North Eastern Power System (NEPS) Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

Afghanistan: Reconstruction

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much funding for Afghanistan was channelled through United Nations agencies in each year since 2004; and how much each UN agency received in each year.

Hilary Benn: The following table shows how much funding DFID Afghanistan has channelled through UN agencies in Afghanistan in each financial year since 2004-05.
	
		
			  £ 
			  UN Agency  2004-05  2005-06  2006-07 
			 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 5,730,748 5,322,613 2,062,126 
			 International Organisation Migration (IOM) 3,500,000 — — 
			 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2,500,000 — — 
			 UN Food Agricultural Organisation (FAO) 1,075,036 603,222 2,980,140 
			 UN Habitat — — 300,000 
			 Total 12,805,784 5,925,835 5,342,266

Bangladesh

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to promote the active role of children and young people in governance programmes  (a) in Bangladesh and  (b) elsewhere.

Gareth Thomas: Better governance is a central theme of DFID's work in Bangladesh. Programmes range from activities fighting corruption and supporting reform of the civil service and police, to supporting public debates and protecting human rights. Participation of children and young people has most impact on activities that aim to change values in relation to corruption and political governance.
	For example, DFID's support for Transparency International Bangladesh includes a component called 'Youth Engagement and Support' (YES). Over 900 young volunteers deliver nationwide debates, competitions, and rallies against corruption. The recent Anti-Corruption Concert in Dhaka attracted 30,000 young people in a bold public statement against corruption.
	DFID Bangladesh also supports a series of governance themed programmes and 'Question time' debates broadcast in Bangla on BBC World Service radio and local satellite TV. Audiences of 17 million have included around 4 million 16 to 24-year-olds. In 2005, a special live debate went out globally on BBC World TV, with a panel including politicians from both major parties in Bangladesh. Hard hitting governance questions came from audiences of students and young people in both Dhaka and (by satellite) from the British Bangladeshi community in London.
	At global level, DFID launched its "Action Plan on Children and Young People's Participation" in 2004 to promote children and young people's participation in decisions affecting them. Part of a UK Government initiative 'Learning to Listen', the Action Plan describes how DFID is involving children and young people in its work to reduce world poverty.
	DFID continues to promote the active role of children and young people in governance programmes. Our work varies at the country level depending on the context. In Sierra Leone, for example, DFID has supported work to engage young people in dialogue on the implementation of the national Poverty Reduction Strategy and the decentralisation process. Given its history, engaging young people is crucial in creating consensus and relieving tensions.
	Reflecting UN initiatives and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), we also support projects and programmes to advocate for children's rights, either directly or through non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The UK Government are also a major contributor to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); one of UNICEF's roles is to advocate for the rights of children and young people.

Bangladesh

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what strategies his Department has to ensure protection for the poorest communities in Bangladesh who will be affected by climate change.

Gareth Thomas: The impact of climate change on Bangladesh from rising sea levels will be gradual; felt over the next 50-100 years. However, there is already evidence of more severe and frequent flooding and droughts, as well as coastal salt-water intrusion, negatively affecting poor people.
	DFID's draft Country Assistance Plan (2007-12) aims to help Bangladesh respond in a timelier and more effective way to acute emergencies and climate change. DFID is helping the Government of Bangladesh's Climate Change Cell develop different strategies to adapt to climate change, including impacts of migration and resettlement on poor people. It has helped 137 poor communities develop their own risk reduction strategies.
	DFID is also helping very poor people living on Chars river islands, which are vulnerable to flooding. We have assisted 107,000 Chars dwellers to raise their houses above the flood line. We have transferred portable assets (such as cows) to almost 11,000 extremely poor Chars women, helping them to make better and more informed decisions about where and when to migrate, together with a compensation grant to those who migrate due to more acute flooding.
	DFID will provide £115 million over the next five years to support the very poorest people living in areas most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. By September 2007, it will develop an action plan to develop further activities, including protection of the poorest people living in the most vulnerable zones in urban areas.

Developing Countries: Insurance

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what  (a) funding and  (b) other resources his Department (i) has committed to micro-insurance schemes in the developing world and (ii) plans to commit in each of the next three financial years.

Hilary Benn: The UK's 2006 White Paper on International Development commits DFID to tackling barriers to access to markets and financial services, and supporting microfinance initiatives in partnership with banks and regulators.
	DFID's financial sector programmes aim to build stronger and more inclusive financial sectors, which benefit the poor. "Microfinance" incorporates a full range of financial products, which includes microinsurance as well as savings, credit and remittances.
	At 31 October 2006, DFID has spent over £165 million to support microfinance and financial sector projects and had committed 140 million more to ongoing projects. DFID does not disaggregate funding on microinsurance specifically. It is not possible to give a meaningful breakdown of future commitments by year as new programmes to improve access to finance continue to be designed and implemented.
	Examples of microfinance programmes supported by DFID include:
	In India, Megatop received a grant of £850,000 via the Financial Services Deepening Trust, to support them in offering a range of microinsurance products and pension policies to farmers in 9,000 villages in Andhra and Madhya Pradesh using a network of village internet portals to lower costs and expand access.
	Since the last review of commitments in October, DFID has approved a £32.8 million seven-year PROSPER programme in Bangladesh, which will support delivery of innovative financial services to the very poor, small businesses and farmers. Around 22 per cent. of these resources will go to a Learning and Innovation Fund which will support projects to test innovative financial services, including microinsurance.
	As well as direct support to programmes, DFID also works in coordination with other donors and specialist agencies:
	DFID provides core funding to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a consortium of 33 public and private development agencies working together to expand access to financial services for the poor. The CGAP working group on microinsurance, in conjunction with the International Labour Organisation, has recently published a Microinsurance Compendium for insurance practitioners and policy makers in developing countries.
	DFID is a leading supporter of FIRST, the Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening Initiative, a multi-donor trust which provides advice to developing countries on how to develop their financial sectors. In Mongolia FIRST has worked with the insurance industry, the government and the World Bank to develop a novel livestock insurance scheme that will provide microinsurance to cattle herders at affordable prices.

Developing Countries: Insurance

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of micro-insurance schemes in the developing world.

Hilary Benn: Surveys carried out by the FinMark Trust, a DFID funded programme in Africa, show that poor people already use a wide variety of formal and informal insurance services ranging from insurance provided by multinational companies to membership of traditional burial societies.
	DFID has helped support the recent expansion of microinsurance in developing countries as an effective way to help poor people to cope with shocks and reduce their vulnerability. Poor people need to be able to access a full range of financial services including insurance as well as savings, credit and remittances.
	Although it is a relatively young industry, microinsurance is already demonstrating its potential to provide protection to low-income communities against risks such as sickness and natural disasters. There remain big challenges, however, to the long-term sustainability of microinsurance including making sure that schemes are affordable and ensuring that schemes are appropriately regulated.
	Examples of DFID support to microinsurance include:
	In Bangladesh, DFID contributed £100,000 to an access to rural finance study. In conjunction with the World Bank, the study investigated the feasibility of introducing a weather linked insurance product for farmers, where payouts are directly linked to objective monitoring of floods and droughts.
	In Africa the FinMark Trust has spent £271,000 over the last three years on programmes aimed at making insurance markets work for the poor and has committed a similar amount over the next three years. The funding has been provided to catalyse change in the insurance market and to leverage private sector investment.

Flowers

James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the environmental costs of importing flowers from  (a) Ethiopia and  (b) Kenya.

Hilary Benn: Recent research by Cranfield university shows that the greenhouse gas emissions produced by growing flowers in Kenya and flying them to the UK can be less than a fifth of those grown in Holland because they are not grown in heated greenhouses.
	Flowers imported to the UK are subject to increasingly rigorous standards that insist on good agricultural practice and prevent overuse of pesticides. In addition to these standards, flower growers may also adopt codes of conduct that require exacting social and environmental standards to be maintained. UK shoppers have played an important role in demanding better standards as have development agencies including DFID and non-government organisations. Consumer concern has also encouraged Kenyan flower farms to invest in water conservation and other improvements in their environmental practice. Nonetheless, there is still room for improvement and we welcome efforts to develop similar codes of practice in Ethiopia.
	While we encourage shoppers to demand continuing improvements, it is for the Kenyan and Ethiopian people to decide on the best use of their natural resources.
	Promoting developing country exports has long been central to UK development and trade policy. Agriculture remains an important source of economic growth and the best means of reducing poverty in most African countries. The Kenyan flower industry has created tens of thousands of jobs on flower farms and the Ethiopian Government has similar ambitions for their flower industry.

Middle East

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the total cost has been of  (a) setting up and  (b) managing the Temporary International Mechanism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Hilary Benn: In total €309 million has been committed through the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) and €181 million has been disbursed to support Palestinian basic needs. The cost of setting up and managing the TIM so far has been approximately €4 million. This total includes all staff-related costs, logistics, office costs, consumables, communication activities, auditing services provided by an international auditing firm and monitoring of fuel deliveries in Gaza. In addition, €5.8 million has been spent on banking charges so far. The total cost of administering the TIM to date amounts to 5.4 per cent. of the total funds disbursed to support Palestinian basic needs.

Businesses: Orders and Regulations

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the  (a) one-off and  (b) recurring cost of implementing the Occupation Exposure Limit-Framework Revision to (i) businesses and (ii) the regulators.

Anne McGuire: I have been asked to reply.
	(i) The costs to business of implementing the Occupational Exposure Limit-Framework Revision to businesses was estimated to be £16.2-£69 million one-off costs in the first year of compliance. No recurring costs were expected.
	It should be noted that these costs were also included in the answer to a recent question on the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (Amendment) Regulations 2004, as these regulations implemented the changes to the Occupational Exposure Limit Framework.
	These figures should be considered against the benefits of reducing the risks from hazardous substances. The new framework aimed to make it easier for employers to comply with COSHH by reducing the different types of Occupational Exposure Limits for hazardous substances and introducing clear principles of exposure control.
	(ii) Costs to the health and safety regulators were not quantified but were considered to be small, with the majority of costs being incurred in the development of guidance and being balanced out by savings in enforcement. The information in this reply was drawn from the final regulatory impact assessment for the legislation that is available in the Library or on the HSE website at:
	http://www.hse.gov.uk/ria/index.htm.
	The Government and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are committed to meeting the Better Regulations challenge. HSE is constantly reviewing what can be done better to ensure that the right balance is struck between protecting people at work and avoiding unnecessary burdens on business. Reviewing and improving the guidance to help employers comply with COSHH is one of the aims in HSC/E's simplification plan.

Heating

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research the Government plans to carry out on the long-term effect on carbon emissions of electric heating by comparison with other heating sources.

Malcolm Wicks: The Government have undertaken a wide range of analysis of the options to reduce carbon emissions from different sources. This includes the 2003 Energy White Paper and the review of the Climate Change Programme and Energy Review both in 2006.
	The analysis of the impact of existing policies on carbon emissions in the UK Climate Change Programme is available at:
	http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/pdf/synthesisccpolicy-evaluations.pdf
	The analysis of the impact of new measures and extensions to existing measures under the programme is available at:
	http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/pdf/synthesisccpolicy-appraisals.pdf
	A summary of the cost benefit analysis of measures in the Energy Review is available at:
	http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file31928.pdf
	The Government have committed to putting the UK on a path to a 60 per cent. Reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. Reducing carbon emissions from the use of electricity will make an important contribution to meeting this target.

Industrial Diseases: Compensation

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many chronic obstructive pulmonary disease coal health claims have been struck out through failure to meet the claims questionnaire cut-off deadline of 8th December 2006; and how many of those were from Bassetlaw constituency.

Malcolm Wicks: No claims have been struck out of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease scheme because of any missed cut-off date so far. As the cut-off date for the live claims questionnaire (CQ) submission was 8 December 2006, the dispute procedure is still on going. However, there are 200 claimants who have submitted a dispute that is still to be resolved.
	6,970 claimants have failed to submit a fit for medical assessment process (MAP) CQ before the cut off date, of which 76 are from the Bassetlaw constituency.

Natural Gas

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total UK gas storage capacity was on 1 January in each of the last 30 years for which records are available.

Malcolm Wicks: Great Britain's gas storage capacity during the period from 1997 is summarised in my parliamentary written answer of 23 January 2007,  Official Report, column 1615W, to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison). I regret that only limited information is available for the period prior to 1996-97. The following table shows the start-up date of each of the earliest storage facilities, and their approximate storage space as of 1996-97:
	
		
			  Facility  Start-up date  Approx. space in 1996-97 (GWh)  Approx. space in 1996-97 (bcm) 
			 Glenmavis 1971 600 0.056 
			 Partington 1972 1,200 0.112 
			 Hornsea (1)1973 2,900 0.270 
			 Avonmouth 1978 900 0.084 
			 Grain 1981 1,200 0.112 
			 Dynevor 1983 300 0.028 
			 Rough 1985 30,300 2.818 
			 (1 )Estimated  Notes: 1. Store space can be assessed in numerous ways (e.g. energy, volume, cushion gas determination, liquefied natural gas heel, etc.), so the figures given may differ from other published data. 2. GWh = Giga Watt Hours; bcm = Billion Cubic Metres.  Source:  National Grid.

Research Councils: Finance

Brian Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the answer of 7 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1995W, on research, what methodology was used to ensure that the change to the budgets of the research councils would have minimal impact on the research objective reflected in his Department's public service agreement objective.

Malcolm Wicks: This part of the overall calculation took account of assessments made by research councils about the impact on their planned activities.
	Budget 2007 announces an early CSR settlement for the DTI's ringfenced science budget, alongside a settlement for DFES. Together, these will ensure that investment in the public science base will rise by an annual average rate of 2.5 per cent. in real terms over the CSR period. The Department of Trade and Industry's science budget will increase from £3.4 billion this year (2007-08) to £3.9 billion by 2010-11. These early settlements provide long term certainty for the research community, and meet the commitments set out in the 10 year investment framework.
	In the context of a tight spending review period, this represents a very good settlement for science.

Research Councils: Finance

Edward Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the effect of the change to the research councils budget.

Malcolm Wicks: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) on 2 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1602W.
	Budget 2007 announces an early CSR settlement for the DTI's ringfenced science budget, alongside a settlement for DFES. Together, these will ensure that investment in the public science base will rise by an annual average rate of 2.5 per cent. in real terms over the CSR period. The Department of Trade and Industry's science budget will increase from £3.4 billion this year (2007-08) to £3.9 billion by 2010-11. These early settlements provide long term certainty for the research community, arid meet the commitments set out in the 10 year investment framework.
	In the context of a tight spending review period, this represents a very good settlement for science.

Research Councils: Finance

Brian Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Cambridge of 2 March 2007,  Official Report, column 1602W, on research councils: finance, if he will list the meetings his officials had with the research councils to discuss the likely impact of the reductions in end-year flexibility on the planned activities.

Malcolm Wicks: Officials have regular and frequent contacts with research councils. In recent weeks there have been discussions between DTI officials and research council staff about end-year flexibility on virtually a daily basis.
	Budget 2007 announces an early CSR settlement for the DTI's ringfenced science budget, alongside a settlement for DFES. Together, these will ensure that investment in the public science base will rise by an annual average rate of 2.5 per cent. in real terms over the CSR period. The Department of Trade and Industry's science budget will increase from £3.4 billion this year (2007-08) to £3.9 billion by 2010-11. These early settlements provide long term certainty for the research community, and meet the commitments set out in the 10 year investment framework.
	In the context of a tight spending review period, this represents a very good settlement for science.

Small Businesses

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if his Department will take steps to introduce microfinance schemes for individuals in deprived areas to improve entreprenueurialism in those areas.

Margaret Hodge: The Government have already taken steps to introduce microfinance schemes to encourage entrepreneurs in deprived areas.
	The Phoenix Fund, launched in 1999, was a time limited, £40 million fund which pump-primed the establishment of 63 community development finance institutions that serve disadvantaged communities around the country. 4,545 loans with at total value of £34,475,308 were provided by the Phoenix Fund, which closed in 2006. Future funding of CDFIs rests with the RDAs who have received a further £11 million of post-Phoenix transition funding for the 2006 to 2008 period specifically for the community finance sector.
	Further assistance with micro-loans is available through the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) which was announced by the Chancellor in his 2005 Budget. It aims to release the economic and productivity potential of the most deprived local areas across the UK through enterprise and investment—thereby boosting local incomes and employment opportunities, and building sustainable communities.
	LEGI is a £300 million programme in the first instance, spread over three years. 15 local authorities have already benefited from the first round. A further 14 local authorities will benefit from the second round. Local authorities that have been successful in securing LEGI funding in rounds one and two may introduce microfinance schemes to encourage entrepreneurship.
	Finally, small businesses in disadvantaged areas may seek funding from the Small Firms Loan Guarantee (SFLG). This scheme provides loans from £5,000 upwards to small businesses with viable business plans that are unable to obtain a conventional loan because they do not have collateral or a proven track record. Current monthly usage is around 250 loans with a total value of around £20 million.

Asylum

Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what circumstances an asylum seeker with exceptional leave to remain is able to leave and return to the UK.

Liam Byrne: A person who applies for asylum and is granted leave to remain in the United Kingdom for more than six months is normally permitted to travel abroad and return to the United Kingdom until their leave expires, provided that they are not absent for a continuous period of more than two years. If they remain outside the United Kingdom for more than two years their leave will lapse and they may not be readmitted to the United Kingdom. The policy and the exceptions to it are set out in the Asylum Policy Instruction Travel Abroad, which is publicly available on the IND website at:
	http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/asylumpolicyinstructions/

Asylum: Children

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many unaccompanied asylum seeking children arriving in the UK in  (a) 2005 and  (b) 2006 were the subject of an age dispute; and how many of those were subsequently found to be minors.

Liam Byrne: Information is not available on how many of those asylum applications lodged in 2005 and 2006 from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASCs) were at some time the subject of an age dispute. The number of age dispute cases who were subsequently found to be minors would only be available by examination of individual case-files at disproportionate cost.
	Information on UASCs is published on a quarterly and annual basis. Statistics on age disputed applications are published annually. Data on age disputed asylum applications in 2005 and 2006 do not necessarily relate to UASC applications received within the same period. Copies of these publications are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Compensation

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was paid in compensation to farmers for losses of animals because of  (a) TB and  (b) other reasons in each of the last five years.

Ben Bradshaw: The information requested is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  Compensation paid in Great Britain 
			  £ 
			  Cause of animal loss  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006 
			 Bovine Tuberculosis 23,139,712 38,218,172 33,823,112 42,952,107 (1)28,169,269 
			 Bovine Brucellosis 0 396,497 149,096 14,856 4,538 
			 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy(2) 2,893,948 1,463,669 683,344 7,699,964 944,216 
			 Scrapie 56,418 16,825 5,421,450 12,171,161 6,341,639 
			 Foot and Mouth Disease 399,750 0 0 0 0 
			 Salmonella 15930 0 601 572 53939 
			 Avian Influenza 0 0 0 0 (3)— 
			 Newcastle Disease 0 0 0 (3)— (3)— 
			 1 Figures are provisional and subject to change. 2 Figures include BSE suspects, cohorts and offspring in Great Britain. The culling of cohorts commenced in 2005 and involved culling a backlog of cohorts in anticipation of the replacement of the Over Thirty Month rule. 3 Only one premises affected. Defra does not make public individual compensation payments.

Climate Change Bill

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether he expects the draft Climate Change Bill to allow emissions reductions attributed to the UK to be achieved overseas; and if he will make a statement.

Ian Pearson: The proposed Bill would allow, under prescribed conditions, a proportion of emissions reductions achieved overseas and paid for by UK entities, to be counted towards the reduction targets in the Bill. This is fully consistent with (and would be limited by) international law, including the Kyoto Protocol and its Marrakech Accords which state, under the flexible mechanism provisions, that countries are permitted to use credits, so long as they are "supplemental to domestic action", and that domestic action comprises a "significant element" of the efforts made by each country.
	The UK fully supports the principle of trading emissions at European level too through the EU ETS. There are significant advantages in allowing international trading as part of the UK's legislative framework, for example it would encourage the further development of global emission trading markets which, as the Stern Review showed, will be central to global collective action to tackle climate change. The Committee on Climate Change will have an important role to play in advising Government on the optimal balance between domestic and overseas effort for each budgetary period.

Horses: Insurance

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will bring forward amendments to the Animals Act 1971 to mitigate the effects on the cost of insurance for horse businesses of the 2003 House of Lords judgement on the interpretation of that Act.

Ben Bradshaw: Decisions about the provision and cost of insurance cover for equestrian businesses are matters for the commercial judgment of the insurance industry.
	However, the Government are well aware of the horse industry's view that the Mirvahedy judgment in 2003 had an adverse effect on insurance premiums. My Department has consulted interested parties on the question of whether an amendment to the Animals Act 1971 to allow a defence of reasonable care would be desirable or appropriate. Parties consulted included the British Horse Industry Confederation, the Country Land and Business Association and the Countryside Alliance.
	The majority of responses received were in favour of a change, and my Department has accordingly offered the horse industry its support if a suitable vehicle for amending the Animals Act, such as a Private Member's Bill, can be found. That offer remains on the table.

Poultry Farming

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions he has had with EU ministers about the implementation of the 1999 Laying Hens Directive; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: My ministerial colleagues and I have regular discussions with our EU counterparts on a range of issues.
	Council Directive 1999/74/EC, which lays down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens, is implemented in England through The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2002.

Whales: Conservation

Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which foreign governments have responded to his Department's publication 'Protecting Whales—A Global Responsibility'; what the nature has been of their responses; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: Like-minded members of IWC have praised our initiative in publishing this booklet and are also making use of it in their own recruitment drives. The booklet and the lobbying which has accompanied its distribution has elicited positive responses from non-members (or unpaid-up members) of IWC, including Costa Rica, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro and others, some of whom are expected to be able to adhere to the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling before the next IWC meeting. Pro-whaling countries have, of course, been critical but that is no surprise.

Whaling

Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 19 February 2007,  Official Report, column 194W, on whaling, to which 57 countries the 'Protecting Whales—A Global Responsibility' document was distributed; whether it has been distributed to any further foreign governments; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: Copies of the publication 'Protecting Whales A Global Responsibility' have been delivered to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Macedonia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Belize, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Guatemala, Nicaragua, China, Guinea, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Slovakia, Belgium, Hungary, Argentina, Australia, Ireland, India, Finland, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Spain, Mexico, Oman, Kenya, Norway, Panama, France, Czech Republic, South Africa, Italy, Chile, Sweden, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, United States of America, Austria and New Zealand.
	Copies will be delivered to all International Whaling Commission (IWC) members before this year's annual meeting of the IWC59 and in future the publication will be used to help encourage other countries to actively engage in the protection of cetacean species around the globe.

Departments: Trade Unions

Theresa May: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many meetings  (a) she and  (b) her Department's Ministers held with trade union representatives in 2006.

David Lammy: No Ministers have held any meetings with trade union representatives in 2006. However DCMS officials meet regularly with them on a wide range of staffing and accommodation issues. The Permanent Secretary also chairs an annual meeting between senior management and local and national trade union representatives to review key departmental issues and the effectiveness of the day to day working relationship between the two sides.

Trident

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate how many  (a) direct and  (b) indirect civilian jobs in (i) Scotland and (ii) the rest of the UK rely upon the Trident programme.

Des Browne: The number of civilian jobs that rely directly on the current Trident programme is estimated to be 859 in Scotland with an additional 7,455 in the rest of the UK. The number of indirect civilian jobs is estimated to be 250 in Scotland and 6,700 in the rest of the UK.
	Additionally, a significant number of military jobs in the UK directly support the Trident programme. In Scotland this amounts to some 1,776 jobs. It is not possible accurately to estimate the number of civilian jobs indirectly employed as a result of these military posts.

Warships: Procurement

Claire Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department has investigated the feasibility of retrofitting the Bay class landing ship dock auxiliaries with aircraft hangers.

Adam Ingram: There is currently no requirement for the Bay class landing ship dock (auxiliary) vessels to be fitted with an aircraft hangar and the feasibility of doing so has not been investigated.

Slavery Remembrance Day

Dawn Butler: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to implement a slavery remembrance day.

John Prescott: As I said in the House on 20 March 2007,  Official Re port, column 688, the Government are encouraging a debate about how we can commemorate the slave trade in the future. We are aware of the strong calls for a national day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition as well as highlighting the problem of modern day slavery, and are actively considering the issue.
	As the House is aware, events and activities are taking place throughout this bicentenary year but with a special focus on both 25 March (the date Royal Assent was given to the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807) and 23 August (the UNESCO international day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition). The House will be aware, however, that other dates have been suggested; the European Commission, for example, supports 11 June as a possible European day against human trafficking. As I made clear in the House on 20 March 2007,  Official Report, column 722, we are approaching the issue from a very positive perspective and Ministers are keen to listen to the views of our local communities as this year progresses on whether there should be a remembrance day and, if so, on what date it should fall.

Office of the Third Sector

Greg Clark: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster which outside consultants have been commissioned to work on the review of the Office of the Third Sector; what their role is in the exercise; and how much they are being paid for their services.

Edward Miliband: Following its establishment in May and the appointment of a new Director General, the Office of the Third Sector is being restructured to enable it to deliver its objectives, reflecting the needs of third sector organisations.
	There are no outside consultants working on this programme. An individual has been seconded from the Big Lottery Fund to lead the programme and support the Director General with implementation. It would not be appropriate to provide details of how much they are being paid for their services as to do could reveal the individual's salary which is personal information.

Benefit Fraud

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many benefit fraud referrals were accepted for investigation in each year since 1999; in how many of these referrals fraud was detected in each year; and how many  (a) sanctions were imposed,  (b) prosecutions were made and  (c) prosecutions resulted in a conviction in each year.

James Plaskitt: Figures for detected fraud by local authorities are not available. The available information is in the following table.
	
		
			  Benefit fraud investigations, detected fraud, prosecutions, convictions and sanctions by DWP and local authorities 
			   Referrals accepted for investigation  Detected fraud (DWP only)  Prosecutions  Convictions  Sanctions 
			 1999-2000 (1)564,543 198,467 (1)9,272 10,029 (1)20,286 
			 2000-01 (1)441,368 182,569 (1)11,584 12,503 (1)27,139 
			 2001-02 615,136 160,974 13,456 12,915 (1)24,906 
			 2002-03 543,919 145,232 12,573 11,733 32,735 
			 2003-04 504,659 135,710 13,891 12,844 38,741 
			 2004-05 505,944 150,651 14,299 13,204 44,091 
			 2005-06 538,492 161,172 16,852 15,088 54,097 
			 (1) These figures are for DWP cases only. Referrals accepted for investigation, sanctions and prosecution are not available for 1999-2000 and 2000-01.  Notes: 1. Sanctions are defined here as the sum of 'prosecutions', 'admin penalties' issued, and 'cautions' issued. 2. The figures for cases of detected fraud are based on the number of effective benefit cases, which is defined as an investigation that results in an adjustment of the current rate of benefit, an overpayment or an underpayment or the person ceasing their claim to benefit. Detected fraud excludes general matching service (QMS) cases. 3. Referrals accepted exclude general matching service (GMS) cases. 4. Sanctions, prosecutions and convictions figures include GMS, Instrument of Payment (IOP) and Organised Fraud cases. 5. Prosecutions figures exclude cases withdrawn at court.

Benefit Fraud

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  what the cost of  (a) operating and  (b) advertising the benefit fraud hotline is in 2006-07;
	(2)  what the cost was of  (a) operating and  (b) advertising the benefit fraud online form in each year since its inception; and how many people have been successfully prosecuted for fraud as a result of evidence from the online form in each year.

James Plaskitt: The Department runs public information campaigns designed to positively reinforce honest behaviour, create a climate of intolerance to benefit fraud and to undermine its social acceptability.
	The benefit fraud hotline has no specific advertising budget of its own and the cost of advertising it is not separately available.
	The operational costs of administering the national benefit fraud hotline include the costs of administering the report-a-benefit thief online service. These costs cannot be separated. The available information is in the following table.
	
		
			  National benefit fraud hotline budget allocation 
			   £ 
			 2001-02 1,086,000 
			 2002-03 959,277 
			 2003-04 957,977 
			 2004-05 1,192,843 
			 2005-06 986,000 
			 2006-07(1) 597,010 
			 (1 )Up to end of December 2006.  Notes: 1. Figures include goods, services and staffing costs. 2. The national benefit fraud hotline (NBFH) commenced in August 1996. Information around budget allocation is available only from year ending 2001-02. Prior to this, NBFH was the responsibility of the former DSS Benefits Agency Security Branch and figures on funding and budget costs are no longer available. 
		
	
	The available information regarding the number of people who have been successfully prosecuted for fraud as a result of evidence from the online report a thief form in each year are in the table.
	
		
			  Convictions arising from completion of the DWP online  report-a-thief form 
			   Number 
			 2000-01 0 
			 2001-02 4 
			 2002-03 20 
			 2003-04 22 
			 2004-05 33 
			 2005-06 64 
			 2006-07 (to date) 55 
			  Note: 1. Information is only available from April 2000.

Benefit Fraud

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were prosecuted as a result of evidence obtained from callers using the benefit theft hotline in the last 12 months for which figures are available.

James Plaskitt: Between 1 February 2006 and 31 January 2007 there were 608 people prosecuted as a result of evidence obtained from callers using the National Benefit Fraud Hotline.
	 Note
	The figures relate to prosecutions carried out between the dates given. They do not relate to calls made during that time. Cases where a call to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline has not yet led to a prosecution are not included.
	 Source
	Fraud Information by Sector

Benefit Fraud

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many callers used the benefit fraud hotline in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available.

James Plaskitt: The current telephony system does not identify the number of unique callers. Many customers call the hotline more than once to check progress or to report additional information.
	Information regarding the number of calls answered is in the following table.
	
		
			  Month  Calls answered 
			  2006  
			 February 21,351 
			 March 20,887 
			 April 12,737 
			 May 15,387 
			 June 20,327 
			 July 16,819 
			 August 20,513 
			 September 14,295 
			 October 15,784 
			 November 22,653 
			 December 11,118 
			   
			  2007  
			 January 19,574 
			  Note: Data include external partners Broad Systems performance as they provide NBFH services during out of hours, they are not part of Jobcentre Plus.  Source: National Benefit Fraud Hotline

Community Care Grants

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of applications for community care grants took  (a) less than two weeks,  (b) two to four weeks,  (c) four to six weeks and  (d) over six weeks in the last year for which figures are available.

James Plaskitt: The information requested is in the following table.
	
		
			  Community care grant applications cleared in 2005-06 in Great Britain 
			  Working days to clear  Number  Percentage 
			 Less than 10 418,500 72.7 
			 Between 10 and 20 inclusive 135,100 23.5 
			 Between 21 and 30 inclusive 16,400 2.8 
			 More than 30 5,500 1.0 
			 Total 575,500 100 
			  Notes: 1. The clearance time for an individual application is measured in whole working days from the date of receipt of the application to the date of the decision, inclusive. 2. Numbers are based on applications cleared in the most recent financial year, not on applications received during that year. 3. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100 and percentages to the nearest 0.1 per cent. (apart from the total).  Source: DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System.

Community Care Grants

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications for community care grants were  (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available.

James Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table.
	
		
			  Community care grants in Great Britain 
			  Month  Initial awards  Initial refusals 
			 February 2006 22,900 24,200 
			 March 2006 24,900 28,200 
			 April 2006 19,700 20,300 
			 May 2006 23,400 25,200 
			 June 2006 25,300 29,000 
			 July 2006 21,500 25,100 
			 August 2006 22,500 26,700 
			 September 2006 21,400 26,800 
			 October 2006 25,300 31,200 
			 November 2006 26,600 33,300 
			 December 2006 19,000 24,100 
			 January 2007 22,000 26,200 
			  Notes: 1. Figures do not include awards or refusals made after review. 2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.  Source: DWP Social fund policy, budget and management information system.

Debt

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individual cases of customer overpayment debt there have been in each year since 1997; what the total value was of customer overpayment debts in this period; what proportion of such debts are over 10 years old; and what the cost was of administering these debts.

James Plaskitt: Our error reduction strategy 'Getting Welfare Right: Tackling Error in the Benefits System', was published on 24 January 2007. This first ever, ambitious strategy on error reduction is based on prevention, compliance and correction—preventing new error; ensuring that customers and staff comply with benefit rules and identifying/correcting existing errors.
	The strategy will save £1 billion over the five years to 2012.
	The information is only available from the fiscal year 2000-01.
	Details of individual customer overpayments identified are in the following table.
	
		
			  New debts 
			   Customer error overpayments identified  Official error and small overpayments identified 
			   Volume  Value (£ million)  Volume  Estimated value (£  million) 
			 2000-01 644,600 363 509,900 131 
			 2001-02 568,700 328 422,000 106 
			 2002-03 510,300 304 438,300 113 
			 2003-04 386,700 278 303,900 85 
			 2004-05 407,000 307 278,500 101 
			 2005-06 549,600 365 296,800 99 
		
	
	The proportion of cases in the debt stock over 10 years old is not available.
	Information on the cost of administering the above debt separately to the Department's other debt recovery operations is not available.

Employment Schemes

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many participants there were in Employment Zone programmes for each month since April 2000; how many of those had previously engaged with Employment Zone programmes; how many found work; and how many had previously participated in the New Deal for Young People.

Jim Murphy: holding answer 7 March 2007
	Since April 2000, 75,000 people have gained a job through Employment Zones.
	Of the 154,820 people who have entered the Employment Zone programme, 29,290 had previously participated in the new deal for young people.
	Information on participants in Employment Zones for each month, and the number of those who had previously engaged with Employment Zone programmes is in the table.
	
		
			  Month  Participants  Of which: had previously engaged with Employment Zone programme 
			 April 2000 980 — 
			 May 2000 2,050 — 
			 June 2000 3,740 — 
			 July 2000 6,380 — 
			 August 2000 9,560 — 
			 September 2000 13,130 — 
			 October 2000 15,800 — 
			 November 2000 18,270 — 
			 December 2000 19,960 — 
			 January 2001 21,330 — 
			 February 2001 22,890 — 
			 March 2001 24,340 — 
			 April 2001 24,280 — 
			 May 2001 24,090 — 
			 June 2001 24,350 — 
			 July 2001 22,910 340 
			 August 2001 21,780 1,110 
			 September 2001 20,920 1,900 
			 October 2001 20,470 2,590 
			 November 2001 19,900 3,630 
			 December 2001 18,710 4,220 
			 January 2002 17,850 4,850 
			 February 2002 17,340 5,280 
			 March 2002 17,070 5,550 
			 April 2002 16,570 5,610 
			 May 2002 16,120 5,680 
			 June 2002 16,140 5,840 
			 July 2002 15,760 5,830 
			 August 2002 15,240 5,720 
			 September 2002 15,450 5,880 
			 October 2002 15,600 6,040 
			 November 2002 16,180 6,700 
			 December 2002 16,190 6,970 
			 January 2003 16,710 7,570 
			 February 2003 17,490 8,110 
			 March 2003 18,370 8,700 
			 April 2003 18,650 8,970 
			 May 2003 18,450 8,920 
			 June 2003 19,130 9,230 
			 July 2003 19,360 9,260 
			 August 2003 19,570 9,070 
			 September 2003 19,890 9,030 
			 October 2003 19,940 8,920 
			 November 2003 19,760 8,720 
			 December 2003 19,160 8,410 
			 January 2004 18,750 8,110 
			 February 2004 18,880 8,040 
			 March 2004 19,230 8,080 
			 April 2004 19,230 7,980 
			 May 2004 19,060 7,610 
			 June 2004 19,090 7,390 
			 July 2004 18,700 6,880 
			 August 2004 18,810 6,680 
			 September 2004 19,190 6,520 
			 October 2004 19,690 6,470 
			 November 2004 19,880 6,390 
			 December 2004 19,440 6,080 
			 January 2005 19,820 6,140 
			 February 2005 20,990 6,470 
			 March 2005 22,210 6,880 
			 April 2005 23,490 7,290 
			 May 2005 24,170 7,570 
			 June 2005 24,800 7,800 
			 July 2005 22,010 6,440 
			 August 2005 22,610 6,640 
			 September 2005 23,270 6,930 
			 October 2005 23,950 7,120 
			 November 2005 24,580 7,400 
			 December 2005 24,490 7,470 
			 January 2006 24,830 7,630 
			 February 2006 25,370 7,880 
			 March 2006 26,580 8,320 
			 April 2006 27,150 8,550 
			 May 2006 27,560 8,710 
			 June 2006 28,180 8,940 
			 July 2006 29,050 9,370 
			 August 2006 28,440 9,390 
			 September 2006 27,200 9,220 
			 October 2006 26,860 9,110 
			 — = Number is nil or negligible.  Notes: 1. Latest data is to October 2006. 2. People can be, and will be, included as participating in more than one month if the time spent on Employment Zones exceeded one month. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.  Source: Information Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions.

Housing Benefit: Homelessness

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to the housing benefit subsidy for homeless households in temporary accommodation on the availability of licensed and short-term leased accommodation.

James Plaskitt: The subsidy system remains generous and the changes still allow for good quality accommodation to be procured.
	Local authorities in London should be able to continue to secure good quality leased temporary accommodation and meet all their reasonable costs within the limits of the existing subsidy system. The accommodation procured should still therefore be cost neutral to the local authorities and there will be no need to move homeless households to cheaper accommodation.
	There is no evidence that local authorities will be unable to procure sufficient leased accommodation within the new subsidy levels to meet their temporary accommodation needs.

Housing Benefit: Homelessness

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to require homeless families to pay a share of the  (a) housing and  (b) management costs of their temporary accommodation from income support and jobseeker's allowance.

James Plaskitt: We are currently working with Communities and Local Government, and the devolved administrations to develop proposals which separate costs for the rent and management of temporary accommodation. Our objectives are to reflect reasonable rent and management costs and support people in temporary accommodation until a permanent solution becomes available.
	We have no plans to require people to pay these costs from their income support or jobseeker's allowance.

Housing Benefit: Reform

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress the Department is making in implementing the modernisation of housing benefit; and if he will make a statement.

James Plaskitt: The next major housing benefit modernisation measures are contained in the Welfare Reform Bill. Included in the Bill are powers to facilitate the national rollout of the local housing allowance, to direct who housing benefit should be paid to in the social sector and to modernise extended payment provisions. The Bill is currently progressing through the House of Lords, where it entered Grand Committee on 20 February.

New Deal Schemes

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people  (a) participated in the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP),  (b) were participating in the NDLP for the second or more time and  (c) gained employment as a result of their participation in the NDLP in each month since 1997.

Jim Murphy: New deal for lone parents is a voluntary programme. Since October 1998, it has helped more than 482,000 lone parents into work. If lone parents choose to participate for a second or subsequent time in the programme, it indicates that they have previously found it helpful and likely to increase their chances of finding work.
	The information is in the following table
	
		
			  New deal for lone parents 
			  Month  Participants  O f which :  participating for second or more time  People gaining employment 
			 November 1998 10,820 0 1,220 
			 December 1998 13,070 10 830 
			 January 1999 19,390 80 1,480 
			 February 1999 27,230 150 1,990 
			 March 1999 35,560 260 2,460 
			 April 1999 39,990 420 3,170 
			 May 1999 42,490 570 2,760 
			 June 1999 43,680 750 2,640 
			 July 1999 45,350 1,080 2,910 
			 August 1999 46,350 1,400 2,180 
			 September 1999 50,220 1,950 3,270 
			 October 1999 54,770 2,610 5,490 
			 November 1999 56,190 2,930 4,810 
			 December 1999 51,650 2,830 2,890 
			 January 2000 53,230 3,350 3,290 
			 February 2000 56,700 3,900 3,670 
			 March 2000 60,410 4,480 5,060 
			 April 2000 61,740 4,740 3,680 
			 May 2000 62,800 5,140 3,900 
			 June 2000 63,450 5,590 4,920 
			 July 2000 63,430 5,850 3,760 
			 August 2000 62,810 6,040 3,470 
			 September 2000 65,580 6,770 6,030 
			 October 2000 65,930 7,170 5,000 
			 November 2000 64,520 7,330 5,150 
			 December 2000 60,670 7,000 3,940 
			 January 2001 61,580 7,560 3,620 
			 February 2001 62,560 7,970 3,810 
			 March 2001 63,380 8,330 5,140 
			 April 2001 61,760 8,360 4,170 
			 May 2001 60,890 8,510 4,160 
			 June 2001 60,670 9,020 4,990 
			 July 2001 60,460 9,310 3,880 
			 August 2001 60,530 9,720 4,400 
			 September 2001 62,130 10,440 5,880 
			 October 2001 60,480 10,430 5,840 
			 November 2001 61,220 10,900 7,190 
			 December 2001 59,240 10,680 3,360 
			 January 2002 61,790 11,600 4,060 
			 February 2002 65,100 12,680 4,780 
			 March 2002 68,930 13,760 6,380 
			 April 2002 69,760 14,380 5,290 
			 May 2002 72,920 15,670 7,030 
			 June 2002 74,660 16,440 5,250 
			 July 2002 76,100 17,070 5,200 
			 August 2002 76,340 17,580 6,600 
			 September 2002 81,440 19,510 8,200 
			 October 2002 82,430 20,060 7,210 
			 November 2002 81,460 20,300 8,000 
			 December 2002 77,450 19,500 3,360 
			 January 2003 79,070 20,440 5,210 
			 February 2003 80,720 21,330 4,590 
			 March 2003 81,830 22,050 4,860 
			 April 2003 82,170 22,650 4,540 
			 May 2003 82,600 23,310 6,320 
			 June 2003 84,270 24,250 5,550 
			 July 2003 84,560 24,720 5,190 
			 August 2003 84,710 25,070 5,840 
			 September 2003 88,190 26,400 8,400 
			 October 2003 90,320 27,220 9,750 
			 November 2003 89,930 27,420 7,460 
			 December 2003 85,830 26,310 4,620 
			 January 2004 86,990 27,340 6,580 
			 February 2004 89,070 28,560 5,930 
			 March 2004 89,940 29,390 6,610 
			 April 2004 88,780 29,320 7,470 
			 May 2004 87,670 29,470 6,650 
			 June 2004 85,680 29,050 6,000 
			 July 2004 82,610 28,460 6,990 
			 August 2004 80,380 27,980 5,300 
			 September 2004 80,360 28,370 8,290 
			 October 2004 81,040 28,930 10,630 
			 November 2004 79,260 28,720 8,310 
			 December 2004 72,660 26,610 5,250 
			 January 2005 73,980 27,620 5,560 
			 February 2005 74,600 28,470 6,220 
			 March 2005 74,000 28,790 5,330 
			 April 2005 72,970 28,960 7,260 
			 May 2005 70,680 28,360 6,150 
			 June 2005 68,670 27,650 5,340 
			 July 2005 66,980 27,430 5,810 
			 August 2005 65,680 27,230 4,390 
			 September2005 68,180 28,530 8,660 
			 October 2005 68,180 28,470 6,880 
			 November 2005 67,120 28,130 6,580 
			 December 2005 62,410 26,260 4,360 
			 January 2006 63,100 26,680 4,230 
			 February 2006 64,140 27,160 4,800 
			 March 2006 63,450 27,020 6,220 
			 April 2006 60,700 25,890 4,350 
			 May 2006 58,300 24,910 4,290 
			 June 2006 56,870 24,350 4,810 
			 July 2006 54,910 23,590 3,510 
			 August 2006 53,040 22,910 3,270 
			  Notes:   1. Data is available from Nov 1998.  2. Latest data is to August 2006.  3. People can be, and will be, included as participating in more than one month if the time spent on New Deal for Lone Parents exceeded one month.  4. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.   Source:  Information Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions.

New Deal Schemes: Self-employed

Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people likely to participate in the New Deal self-employment programme in the next 12 months; and how many participated in each of the previous three years.

Eric Martlew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he has estimated the costs to the public purse of assisting an unemployed person to return to work under the  (a) New Deal self-employment programme and  (b) other employment programmes.

Jim Murphy: Self-employment support is available to new deal participants through the mandatory new deal for young people and new deal 25 plus and through the voluntary new deal for partners and new deal for lone parents. There is no separate new deal self-employment programme.
	Self-employment support offers an initial awareness session for potential entrepreneurs followed by a period of supported business planning with a business expert and a period of 'test trading'. During test trading, participants start their business while continuing to receive their benefit, an allowance or working tax credits, depending on their circumstances, to help them over any initial transitional hurdles. This period can last up to a maximum of 26 weeks.
	No specific assessment has been carried out into the relative merits, or costs involved, of returning to work through new deal self-employment compared with other elements of new deal. However, data indicate that of those who started the stage three self-employment test trading element of new deal for young people, 61 per cent. subsequently left to employment. Corresponding figures for the new deal for young people options are: employment option: 71 per cent.; full-time education and training option: 46 per cent.; voluntary sector: 51 per cent., and environmental task force: 52 per cent. Similar data are not available for the other new deals.
	We expect that around 5,000 people will start new deal self-employment support in 2007-08.
	Information is not available on the number of starts to self-employment provision through new deal for partners and new deal for lone parents in the last three years. Information on the number of people who started self-employment provision in the two mandatory new deals in each of the last three years is in the table.
	
		
			  Starts on the new deal self-employment option 
			   New deal for young people  New deal 25 plus 
			 2003-04 2,720 3,940 
			 2004-05 2,340 3,770 
			 2005-06 1,600 2,950 
			  Source: DWP Information Directorate

Poverty: Children

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of families with children who could not afford  (a) winter coats and shoes,  (b) two meals a day,  (c) toys and  (d) school trips in (i) 1997, (ii) 2001 and (iii) the latest year for which figures are available.

Jim Murphy: Data are not available for 1997. The most recent year for which figures are available in 2004. Figures are taken from the Families and Children's Study, an annual DWP-funded survey of 7,000 families with dependent children in Great Britain which has been carried out since 2001. The parent(s), usually the mother, are asked about a set of items, to report whether they "have this", "would like to have this but cannot afford it at the moment" or "do not want/need this at the moment". The responses are the respondent's own interpretations.
	The available information is in the following table. Figures are not available for "two meals a day" and "school trips". They are available for "a cooked main meal" and "money for trips, holidays or outings" so these have been provided instead.
	
		
			  The proportions and numbers of families with children in Great Britain reporting that "they would like to have this but cannot afford it at the moment" 
			   2001  2004 
			   Percentage  Number  Percentage  Number 
			 Weather-proof coat for each child 2.8 196,000 1.3 89,000 
			 Two pairs of all weather shoes for each child 7.4 520,000 3.9 274,000 
			 A cooked main meal every day 1.7 119,000 1.1 77,000 
			 Toys and sports gear for the children 6.5 451,000 3.4 238,000 
			 Money for trips, holidays or outings 21.7 1,518,000 17.2 1,201,000 
			  Note: Population figures have been estimated by grossing up from a representative sample of 7,000 families and will therefore be subject to error.  Source: Families and Children's Study

Rented Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of  (a) the number and  (b) the proportion of households renting from (i) local authorities, (ii) registered social landlords, (iii) private landlords and (iv) owner occupiers which are workless.

James Plaskitt: The following table shows the number and proportion of workless people by tenure.
	
		
			   Total number of workless people, including pensioners ( M illion)  Number of workless working age people ( M illion)  Proportion of workless people( 1)  ( P ercentage) 
			 Local authority tenants 3.0 1.8 54 
			 Housing association tenants 1.9 1.1 53 
			 Private tenants 1.5 1.2 32 
			 Owners/part owners 11.8 4.6 18 
			 (1) The proportion of workless people is the proportion of working age people who are out of work.  Note: Figures may not add up due to rounding.  Source: Labour Force Survey - October to December 2006

Rented Housing

Lee Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were prosecuted for benefit fraud in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

James Plaskitt: The information is in the following table.
	
		
			  Benefit fraud prosecutions convictions and sanctions by DWP and local authorities 
			   Prosecutions  Convictions  Total of all Sanctions 
			 2003-04 13,891 12,844 38,741 
			 2004-05 14,299 13,204 44,091 
			 2005-06 16,852 15,088 54,097 
			  Notes: 1. Sanctions, prosecutions and convictions figures include QMS, Instrument of Payment (IOP) and Organised Fraud cases. 2. Prosecutions figures exclude cases withdrawn at court. 3. Sanctions are defined here as the sum of 'prosecutions', 'administrative penalties' issued, and 'cautions' issued.

Winter Fuel Payments

Daniel Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of households eligible for winter fuel payments in 2006-07; and how many applications his Department has received for that payment.

James Purnell: 8,506,750 households received a winter fuel payment in winter 2005-06. It is not possible to say how many households are eligible for a winter fuel payment because in order to assess whether a person is entitled to a winter fuel payment we need to establish their circumstances. A person may be ineligible for various reasons such as serving a custodial sentence, in hospital receiving free in-patient treatment for more than 52 weeks, or subject to immigration control. Over 99 per cent. of winter fuel payments are made automatically without the need to claim based on information already held by the Department. However some people aged 60 or over who are not in receipt of a benefit administered by DWP may need to claim. For winter 2005-06 we received 311,900 claim forms by the cut off date of 30 March 2006. Figures for winter 2006-07 are not yet available but we expect the numbers to be similar.
	 Notes
	1. Figures rounded to the nearest 10.
	2. Any residence found to have four or more occupants aged 60 and over is not included in the household figures as it is assumed to be a care home.
	 Sources
	For winter fuel payments made: Information directorate 100 per cent data.
	For claim forms received: winter fuel planning and implementation team and the winter fuel payment centre.

Acute Beds: Eastern Region

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many acute hospital beds per head of population there were in  (a) the former Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire strategic health authority area,  (b) the East of England Strategic Health Authority area,  (c) the former Suffolk West Primary Care Trust area and  (d) Suffolk Primary Care Trust area in each year since 1997.

Andy Burnham: Information is not available in the format requested. The following table shows the average daily number of available acute beds per 100,000 population, for the period 2002-03 to 2005-06 for the former Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA, the former Suffolk West Primary Care Trust and the newly formed East of England SHA which was created on 1 October 2006, following the merger of three previous SHA (Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA, Essex SHA and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA).
	
		
			   Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA  East of England SHA  Suffolk West PCT 
			 2002-03 213.65 168.25 2.79 
			 2003-04 218.91 172.55 — 
			 2004-05 211.84 172.29 — 
			 2005-06 198.28 163.40 — 
			  Notes: 1. Due to SHA reconfigurations, data from prior to 2002-03 are not available at SHA level. 2. Population data for mid-year 2006 and beds data for 2006-07 are not yet available. 3. Suffolk West PCT only provided acute beds in 2002-03. They subsequently provided geriatric beds. 4. Suffolk West PCT was formed at the start of 2002-03 from Bury St Edmonds PCG. The old organisation did not provide any beds.  Source: Department of Health dataset KH03 and Office for National Statistics. Population data are for mid year (based on 2001 census)

Ambulance Services: Emergency Calls

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many emergency calls were made to ambulance services in each year since 1997-98.

Andy Burnham: Validated information about ambulance service's response times to emergency calls is collected each year by the Department on return ambulance services, England: KA34 and published annually. Copies are available in the Library and available on the Information Centre for Health and Social Care's website:
	www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/ambulanceserv06
	
		
			  Emergency calls to ambulance services, 1997-98 to 2005-06 ,  England 
			   Number of emergency calls ( M illion) 
			 1997-98 3.58 
			 1998-99 3.84 
			 1999-2000 4.18 
			 2000-01 4.41 
			 2001-02 4.72 
			 2002-03 4.93 
			 2003-04 5.32 
			 2004-05 5.62 
			 2005-06 5.96 
			  Source: The Information Centre, Ambulance Services, England - Form KA34.

Bowel Cancer Screening

John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding her Department allocated to the national bowel cancer screening programe for 2006-07; and what funding has been agreed for the programme in 2007-08.

Rosie Winterton: Funding for the national health service bowel cancer screening programme is included in the strategic health authority (SHA) bundle, that incorporates a number of budgets formally managed directly by the Department.
	Around £10 million will be spent on wave 1 of the programme in 2006-07. The value of the SHA bundle for 2007-08 is £6,945.78 million, and was announced in the NHS Operating Framework that was published on 11 December to the NHS. Allocations are made direct to SHAs, and they manage the distribution of funds among the different programmes, including the bowel cancer screening programme, taking account of local circumstances.
	This is an ambitious programme, and the Government are committed to ensuring that the necessary funding is available to ensure the full implementation of the bowel cancer screening programme.

Childbirth

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the  (a) minimum and  (b) average period was that (i) primagravida and (ii) all other mothers spent in hospital after delivery in each year since 1995.

Andy Burnham: That information is not available in the form requested and it is not obtainable without disproportionate cost.

Depression

Mark Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 26 February 2007,  Official Report, column 1112W, on depression, who is responsible for  (a) responding to and  (b) following up recommendations made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on matters other than guidelines on clinical matters.

Rosie Winterton: Research recommendations made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) are considered by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme. The HTA programme ensures that high quality research information on health technologies is produced in the most effective way for those who use, manage and provide care in the NHS. The programme is coordinated by the National Coordinating Centre for HTA on behalf of the Department's Research and Development Directorate.
	The HTA programme and NICE are working closely together in order to increase uptake of NICE research recommendations and to increase the number of high quality research recommendations coming to the programme for the benefit of the NHS and its patients. NICE research recommendations are recognised as important and are given special consideration in the HTA programme prioritisation processes.

Health Services: Irish

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what sanctions are applicable to health bodies which fail to take account of the needs of the Irish community under the requirements of race equality schemes.

Rosie Winterton: The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places specific duties on national health service trusts, primary care trusts, special health authorities and strategic health authorities. These include a requirement to publish a race equality scheme and to ensure that the organisation is taking account of the needs of minority ethnic communities, including the Irish community.
	The Department has issued guidance setting out these accountabilities for NHS boards and the Healthcare Commission's inspection role includes an explicit focus on equality and diversity in their assessments of NHS organisations.
	Like all public authorities, NHS organisations can be challenged in a High Court for failing meet its duties under the Act and the Commission for Racial Equality can use its powers of formal investigation to enforce these duties.
	The Department wrote to all NHS chief executives in January 2007 to remind them of their responsibilities under this legislation.

Health: Prisoners

David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedures are in place to  (a) collect information on prisoners' health and  (b) share such information with relevant primary care trusts on the release of prisoners.

Rosie Winterton: Medical information in prison is managed in accordance with relevant legislation and the NHS code of practice on confidentiality.
	A discrete patient clinical record is opened for every prisoner on first reception into custody and reasonable attempts made to merge this with records from previous periods in custody. Where possible, and with the prisoner's express consent, information from the prisoner's general practitioner (GP) or other relevant service he/she has recently been in contact with is also sought.
	Last year, the Prison Service issued a mandatory instruction, 'Prison Service Order 3050 Continuity of Healthcare for Prisoners', to prison governors to improve the continuity of healthcare received by prisoners between key stages of their imprisonment—particularly as they enter prison, transfer between prisons, attend court, and on release. A copy is available in the Library.
	Offenders with continuing care needs should have relevant information about them communicated to their GP or other agency with responsibility for their care upon their release. Prisons are required to have written and observed guidelines in place setting out the procedures for reception, transfer and release, including:
	Ensuring information on continuing care is conveyed to other establishments on transfer, to national health service hospitals for outpatient and inpatient appointments, and;
	Information to ensure continuity of care is communicated, with the prisoner's consent, to a general practitioner and or other responsible community agencies on discharge.
	In 2002, the Department published 'Guidance On The Protection and Use Of Confidential Health Information In Prisons And Inter-Agency Information Sharing', which provides a framework for developing local agreements and inter-agency information sharing protocols to ensure that boundary crossing processes work smoothly, are effectively managed and that patient and staff uncertainties about information sharing are reduced.

Hearing Impaired: Health Services

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what assessment has been  (a) undertaken and  (b) published of the effectiveness of open-ear technology for audiology service as advocated in the recent document "Improving Access to Audiology Services in England"; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  if she will estimate the cost to the NHS of collating and publishing on a quarterly basis the waiting times for audiology services for each audiology department from GP referral to actual fitting for  (a) first time fittings and  (b) reassessments; and if she will make a statement.

Andy Burnham: Twelve national health service trusts have tested the open ear hearing aid technology. The findings from these sites will be published shortly as part of the good practice evidence and tools referenced in "Improving Access to Audiology Services in England".
	Since January 2006, we have been collecting waiting time data for diagnostic tests/procedures, including audiology. The monthly diagnostic data for audiology consisted of waits for pure tone audiometry until October 2006 (published in December) when this was extended to cover all audiometry assessments.
	We plan to consider later this year whether a national collection of referral to treatment waiting times for audiology services is necessary as part of the work underpinning "Improving Access to Audiology Services in England", published in March 2007. A copy of which is available in the Library.

Hospitals: Waiting Lists

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the causes of the correlation between primary care trusts with low-age needs scores and health economies with greater distance from the six-month inpatient waiting time target reported in her Department's chief economist's report, Explaining NHS deficits, published on 20 February.

Andy Burnham: The distance between several secondary sector service targets and the service initial positions in March 2003-04 is moderately correlated to the age/needs index: the PCT health economies with low age/needs had modestly further to travel to achieve the targets. However, numerous parts of the country with low age/needs did not have far to travel in meeting these targets. The correlation is not a perfect one (with correlation co-efficients ranging from -0.28 in the case of distance to the A&E four hour wait and age/needs to -0.13 in the case of distance to the outpatient booking targets and age/needs). The reasons behind the relationship are complex.
	Secondary sector under-performance in low age/needs areas is likely to have existed for some time prior to March 2003-04. By raising the quality of care to uniform national standards, the Government have significantly improved the services provided to patients in these areas.
	The age and need index, and the interactions between them, are currently being reviewed by independent academic researchers under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. A new age and need adjustment for weighted capitation may emerge from this research for resource allocation in 2008-09.

Influenza

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 9 March 2007,  Official Report, column 2298W, on influenza: disease control, what observations the World Health Organisation representatives made on the likely availability of influenza vaccines from non-UK sources during a pandemic.

Rosie Winterton: In the context of exercise Winter Willow, the scenario required that manufacturing delays meant that pandemic specific vaccine would not be available to the United Kingdom during the first wave of the exercise pandemic and therefore use of such vaccine was not considered further in the context of the exercise. The views of the World Health Organization representatives was not sought on this aspect of the scenario during the exercise.

Maternity Services: Compensation

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many maternity-related compensation claims there were in each year since 1995;
	(2)  how much her Department paid in compensation to patients in each year since 1995; and what proportion of such payments were for maternity-related claims.

Andy Burnham: The NHS Litigation Authority collects data on the obstetrics speciality, which includes maternity-related compensation claims. The table shows how many claims there have been under the clinical negligence scheme for trusts (CNST) in each year since 1995, the number of obstetrics claims in each of those years, as well as total paid in compensation on all claims and total on all obstetrics claims. Claims are taken as the year in which the incident was reported to have occurred.
	
		
			  Payments made on settled claims and numbers of claims received by incident year for CNST obstetrics claims (including Category A( 1 ) claims) as at 28 February 2007 
			  Incident year( 2)  Number of obstetrics claims received  Number of claims received  Damages paid on settled obstetrics claims  Damages paid on all settled claims  Damages paid  -  percentage obstetrics claims of all claims 
			 1995-96 943 6,056 109,992,847 231,701,442 47.47 
			 1996-97 975 5,958 114,298,044 219,068,052 52.17 
			 1997-98 956 6,099 87,834,687 198,269,595 44.30 
			 1998-99 913 6,196 71,266,303 204,880,312 34.78 
			 1999-2000 782 5,622 65,123,682 169,943,116 38.32 
			 2000-01 753 5,515 27,306,108 131,087,657 20.83 
			 2001-02 641 5,069 11,456,127 104,175,586 11.00 
			 2002-03 664 5,220 8,929,192 53,794,385 16.60 
			 2003-04 609 4,591 2,966,080 21,882,270 13.55 
			 2004-05 412 3,046 1,283,844 8,982,119 14.29 
			 2005-06 238 1,821 309,507 1,877,238 16.49 
			 2006-07 29 352 0 113,786 0.00 
			 Total 7,915 55,545 500,766,421 1,345,775,557 37.21 
			 (1) Category A claims are those that fell within the excess claim limit and were handled by individual trusts before the excess was removed in 2002. (2) Claims have been considered in the year that the incident occurred.  Notes: 1. Claims may still be made for incidents that have yet to be reported within the stated years. 4. Category A claims were handled by individual trusts and reported to the NHS Litigation Authority. Therefore, the NHS Litigation Authority cannot 100 per cent. validate the accuracy of the data around these claims as the data was not produced by the NHS Litigation Authority.

Musgrove Park Hospital: Waiting Lists

Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for  (a) in-patient,  (b) day cases and  (c) out-patient appointments in Musgrove Park hospital, Taunton, in each year since 1992.

Andy Burnham: The median waiting times for in-patient, day cases and out-patient appointments in the Taunton and Somerset national health service trust in each year since 1992 are shown in the table.
	
		
			  Provider based median waiting time information for Taunton and Somerset NHS trust, March 1992 to December 2006 
			   Median waiting time (weeks) for stage of treatment 
			   In-patient admission-ordinary  In-patient admission-day case  First out-patient appointment 
			  March
			 1992 14.3 10.6 n/a 
			 1993 14.2 10.4 n/a 
			 1994 13.4 10.2 4.5 
			 1995 11.8 8.8 5.2 
			 1996 10.4 8.4 6.4 
			 1997 14.8 10.2 6.5 
			 1998 17.2 10.2 6.5 
			 1999 17.3 9.8 6.6 
			 2000 19.8 11.7 7.2 
			 2001 16.9 11.4 6.6 
			 2002 19.3 12.3 7.1 
			 2003 11.0 9.8 8.3 
			 2004 11.1 9.0 6.8 
			 2005 9.4 7.1 6.5 
			 2006 7.5 5.1 6.0 
			  December
			 2006 6.1 4.8 5.2 
			  Notes:  No out-patient data was collected before the financial year 1993-94. In-patient waiting time based on median wait of those still waiting at end of period. Out-patient waiting times based on time waited for those seen during the quarter.  Source:  Department of Health, KH07 and QM08s

NHS Direct

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of calls to NHS Direct were referred to  (a) 999 and  (b) an accident and emergency department in each quarter since December 2002.

Andy Burnham: The information is shown in the table
	
		
			  Financial year  Number of calls answered( 1)  Number of calls referred to 999 services by NHS Direct( 2)  Percentage of calls to NHS Direct which have been referred to 999  Number of calls referred to accident and emergency (A and E)( 3)  Percentage of calls to NHS Direct which have been referred to A and E 
			  2002-03  
			 Q4 1,609,663 52,765 3.3 105,230 6.5 
			   
			  2003-04  
			 Q1 1,655,618 49,065 3.0 106,974 6.5 
			 Q2 1,524,876 50,860 3.3 109,361 7.2 
			 Q3 1,628,297 57,681 3.5 98,794 6.1 
			 Q4 1,595,687 58,948 3.7 106,576 6.7 
			   
			  2004-05  
			 Q1 1,596,680 58,583 3.7 104,427 6.5 
			 Q2 1,550,490 56,105 3.6 94,873 6.1 
			 Q3 1,688,245 62,673 3.7 94,189 5.6 
			 Q4 1,748,935 62,000 3.5 91,395 5.2 
			   
			  2005-06  
			 Q1 1,705,750 59,261 3.5 99,764 5.8 
			 Q2 1,626,366 55,685 3.4 97,610 6.0 
			 Q3 1,723,708 62,046 3.6 98,766 5.7 
			 Q4 1,755,927 61,005 3.5 97,115 5.5 
			   
			  2006-07  
			 Q1 1,654,436 50,458 3.0 97,575 5.9 
			 Q2 1,501,597 46,989 3.1 92,483 6.2 
			 Q3 1,447,940 49,528 3.4 84,922 5.9 
			 (1) Definition of volume: calls answered-number of calls answered/handled after the introductory message. (2) Calls referred to ambulance or paramedic services. (3) Calls where patients are asked to attend an A and E department.  Source: NHS Direct Special Health Authority

NHS: Equal Opportunities

Howard Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will take steps to launch a website cataloguing best practice to support those introducing gender equality duties in the NHS.

Rosie Winterton: The Department has already produced guidance for national health service organisations that have a duty to implement the forthcoming gender equality duty.
	'Creating a Gender Equality Scheme: A practical guide for the NHS' is posted on the Department website and includes examples of good practice in both service and workforce areas. The Department has also recently launched single equality scheme web guidance '10 Steps to Your SES' to support NHS organisations to comply with all existing and emerging public sector duties in a coherent and cross cutting way. This also provides the opportunity for NHS organisations to share examples of best practice on an ongoing basis.

Nitrous Oxide: Health Hazards

Lindsay Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the availability of nitrous oxide for recreational use.

Caroline Flint: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no discussions with the Home Secretary on this subject.
	The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency have issued a press release warning nightclubs and festivals of the health risks of inhaling nitrous oxide, reminding them of their responsibilities and the prospects of legal action should they allow the sale of nitrous oxide on their property.

Nurses: Schools

Sally Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many school nurses or full-time equivalents there were in Northamptonshire in each year from 2000 to 2006.

Andy Burnham: The information requested is not available in the format required.
	Data available for the numbers of school nurses or full-time equivalents in Northamptonshire for 2004-05 is shown in the table.
	
		
			   2004  2005 
			   Qualified school nursing nurses  Of which: qualified school nurses( 1)  Qualified school nursing nurses  Of which: qualified school nurses( 1) 
			  Headcount 
			 Daventry and South Northamptonshire primary care trust 6 6 5 5 
			  
			 Northamptonshire Heartlands PCT 24 18 23 18 
			 Total specified organisations 30 24 28 23 
			  
			  Full-time equivalent 
			 Daventry and South Northamptonshire PCT 3 3 2 2 
			 Northamptonshire Heartlands PCT 14 11 14 11 
			 Total specified organisations 17 14 16 13 
			 (1) Qualified school nurses hold the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) specialist practice qualification with an outcome in school nursing, which is a recordable qualification on the NMC register.  Notes: 1. Full-time equivalent figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.  2. School nursing nurses have only been collected from 2004 as a separate category. 3. It should be further noted that, as data is not centrally held below PCT level, figures are not available for the parts of Northamptonshire which previously fell within Cherwell Vale PCT and South Peterborough PCT.  Source: The Information Centre for health and social care non-medical workforce census

Pembury Hospital

Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health why the figure for the cost of the Pembury hospital private finance initiative Scheme, as used by the Minister of State in her letter to hon. Members representing Kent constituencies of 26 February 2007, differs from the figure given by the Prime Minister in his oral answer of 19 July 2006.

Andy Burnham: The principal reason for the change to the capital values of the scheme at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells national health service trust was that in October 2006 the scheme was subject to a Departmental reappraisal. A key part of this was an assessment of the capacity assumptions to ascertain if these were realistic and properly suited to the needs of the local health economy; and a review of the estate in terms of current and planned building stock to ensure optimal use. This led the trust to reconsider how the scheme could best be structured in order to deliver services in the most cost effective way and ensure long-term viability, and the capital value of the scheme was reduced accordingly.
	In addition, the figure given by the Prime Minister included the cost of the mental health element of the scheme, which is being funded by the Kent and Medway Partnership and Social Care Trust. The Secretary of State's letter gave a figure that related exclusively to the acute element of the scheme.

Prostate Cancer

David Clelland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking  (a) to facilitate and  (b) to monitor the implementation of the Prostate Cancer Equality Action Plan.

Rosie Winterton: Good progress has been made in considering the recommendations of the prostate cancer charter for action's tackling prostate cancer in black and minority ethnic (BME) groups report. The recommendations were included for consideration in the cancer equality action plan, which fed into the Department action plan to support the publication of the Single Equality Scheme on 4 December 2006. Specifically:
	the cancer action team have appointed to the post of Associate Director—Patient Experience. This post is being funded by the National Audit Office, and the postholder begins work on 1 April 2007. Responsibilities will cover equality issues as follows:
	provide leadership on BME issues within the cancer action team;
	promote the establishment of a forum of the key stakeholders working with BME communities and work with them to facilitate the sharing of good practice; and
	work with key stakeholders and selected cancer networks to develop best practice guidance for cancer networks (including needs of local population, awareness raising, information and support for patients, end of life care and promote the implementation of guidance).
	public awareness pilot—the pilot took place in Coventry in October 2006, and draft quantitative and qualitative evaluation reports have been received. These are being considered by the prostate cancer advisory group's (PCAG) public awareness working group, who will advise the main PCAG on implementation of the findings in June 2007;
	prostate cancer risk management programme (PCRMP)—the higher risk of prostate cancer for men of black origin will be included in revised PCRMP materials, due for relaunch in March 2008; and
	research—follow up studies to the prostate cancer in ethnic subgroups (PROCESS) study are being actively developed.
	The Department's cancer policy team are facilitating and monitoring the implementation of the tackling prostate cancer in BME groups report, and the other recommendations will be considered with the cancer action team Associate Director—Patient Experience in due course.

Prostate Cancer

David Clelland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what procedures she has put in place to ensure that men with prostate cancer are given information on  (a) local support groups and  (b) national charities involved with prostate cancer;
	(2)  what steps she is taking to ensure that men have an informed choice when making decisions about their treatment for prostate cancer.

Rosie Winterton: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published "Improving Outcomes in Urological Cancers", including prostate cancer, in September 2002. The guidance recommends that the treatment each patient receives should be tailored to fit his individual values and situation, so it is essential that patients are actively involved in decision-making. This requires that they receive adequate and accurate information, both through meetings with members of the multi-disciplinary team, and in published forms so that they can study at home. Patients should be given sufficient time to consider all the options available to them.
	To support this, a number of initiatives are under way:
	The cancer services collaborative Improvement Partnership patient information project team has been working with cancer networks since 2003 to help them develop the resources and processes they need to provide a co-ordinated network wide approach to patient information delivery. A website has now been launched to support networks in improving patient information delivery by providing guidance and resources.
	The Government will introduce Information Prescriptions for everyone with a long term condition or care need by 2008. This commitment is part of the 2006 White Paper "Our Health Our Care Our Say". The information prescriptions pilots, which will trial the initiative, were announced on 18 October 2006. The pilot includes four sites focusing on cancer, and will run until the end of 2007.
	From 2004 to 2005 the Action on Urology programme hosted a project designed to pilot the implementation of decision aids into routine practice in the national health service. The decision aid programme was introduced into four NHS hospital trusts in England, into either one or both of two urology pathways early-stage localised prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Phase one identified a range of improvements which participants felt should be made before the package was rolled out nationally. Phase two has been established to address these amendments in a further six pilot sites. It is planned that a final range of decision making tools will be ready for general issue across England by March 2008.
	The Department has collaborated with signatories to the prostate cancer charter for action to develop UK Prostate Link, the first comprehensive online source of information of its kind, to help prostate cancer patients, their families and health professionals to access the quality information they need about prostate cancer. The website address is: www.prostate-link.org.uk
	Patient information and decision support are also being taken forward by the patient experience working group as part of the development of the cancer reform strategy.

Correspondence

Michael Spicer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when she expects the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 18 January 2007 (Ref:83269/231), on legal aid.

Vera Baird: I replied to the hon. Member on 22 March. I apologise for the delay.

Higher Education Funding Council

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what activities the Higher Education Funding Council for England undertook overseas in  (a) 2003-04,  (b) 2004-05 and  (c) 2005-06; and if he will make a statement.

Bill Rammell: The overseas activities undertaken by HEFCE are given in the following tables.
	
		
			  2003-04: HEFCE staff who made following visits 
			  Country  Number of HEFCE staff  Activity 
			 USA 4 Conferences 
			 Japan 1 Project workshop 
			 Belgium 3 Euro policy workshop 
			 New Zealand and Australia 2 Conferences 
			 France 3 OECD project workshop 
			 Thailand 1 Conference 
			 India 2 Policy forum 
			 Japan 2 Policy forum 
			 China 3 OECD project 
			 Italy 2 Conference 
			 Taiwan 1 Ministry visit 
			 Iceland 1 Conference 
			 Germany 1 Conference 
			 Netherlands 1 Conference 
			 Switzerland 1 Conference 
			  Notes: In addition HEFCE part funded: (a) (with British Council) an Education manager post at British Council in Beijing, (b) (with the Ministry of Education, China) an HE Leadership Development project, (c) (with the Ministry of Education, Thailand) an HE Policy Forum, (d) (with OECD and other countries) an HE financial management project 
		
	
	
		
			  2004-05: HEFCE staff made the following visits: 
			  Country  Number of HEFCE staff  Activity 
			 France 1 Conference 
			 USA 3 Conferences 
			 Chile 2 Conference 
			 New Zealand and Australia 3 Conferences and study visits 
			 Belgium 1 Conference 
			 Germany 2 Conference 
			 Netherlands 1 Conference 
			 Belgium 7 Study visit 
			 Slovakia 2 Policy seminar 
			 Sri Lanka 1 Study visit 
			 Taiwan 1 Ministry visit 
			 Finland 1 Study visit 
			 Austria 1 Conference 
			  Notes: In addition HEFCE part funded: (a) (with British Council) an Education manager post at British Council in Beijing, (b) (with the Ministry of Education, China) an HE Leadership Development project, (c) (with OECD and other countries) an HE financial management project (d) a seminar in Australia as part of a project overseen by the Association of Commonwealth Universities. 
		
	
	
		
			  2005-06: HEFCE staff made the following visits: 
			  Country  Number of HEFCE staff  Activity 
			 France 1 Conference 
			 USA 4 Conferences 
			 New Zealand 2 Conference 
			 Belgium 1 Conference 
			 Netherlands 1 Conference 
			 Japan 2 Policy seminar 
			 China 4 Conferences and project workshops 
			 Sweden 3 Study visit and conference 
			 Spain 1 Conference 
			  Notes: In addition HEFCE part funded: (a) (with British Council) an Education manager post at British Council in Beijing.

Domestic Violence

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many incidents of domestic violence were recorded in each Police Service of Northern Ireland District Command Unit in each of the last three years.

Paul Goggins: PSNI have provided the following table which details statistics relating to the number of incidents with a domestic motivation, broken down by DCU, Urban and Rural Region, during each of the last three years.
	
		
			  Incidents with a domestic motivation 
			   Total number of incidents 
			   2004-05  2005-06  1 April 2006 to 31 January 2007( 1) 
			  Urban region
			 Antrim 628 706 517 
			 Ards 728 843 880 
			 East Belfast 1,246 1,336 1,294 
			 North Belfast 1,843 2,157 1,905 
			 South Belfast 853 999 760 
			 West Belfast 1,086 1,113 980 
			 Carrickfergus 364 480 360 
			 Castlereagh 617 432 437 
			 Lame 293 313 263 
			 Lisburn 1,782 1,551 1,529 
			 Newtownabbey 863 973 818 
			 North Down 774 919 747 
			 Urban Region 11,077 11,822 10,490 
			 
			  Rural region
			 Armagh 353 482 394 
			 Ballymena 580 584 447 
			 Ballymoney 255 272 190 
			 Banbridge 346 431 362 
			 Coleraine 824 1,072 1,026 
			 Cookstown 446 503 342 
			 Craigavon 1,233 1,403 1,238 
			 Down 363 670 667 
			 Dungannon and South Tyrone 323 406 416 
			 Fermanagh 518 609 484 
			 Foyle 1,921 1,691 1,294 
			 Limavady 392 460 480 
			 Magherafelt 448 345 303 
			 Moyle 102 128 119 
			 Newry and Mourne 617 960 800 
			 Omagh 666 723 668 
			 Strabane 495 498 411 
			 Rural region 9,882 11,237 9,641 
			 Northern Ireland 20,959 23,059 20,131 
			 (1) Figures are provisional and may be subject to revision.  Note: Domestic motivated incidents cover all such occurrences, whether a crime has been committed or not.  Source: Central Statistics Unit, PSNI

Domestic Violence

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people were  (a) charged with and  (b) convicted of domestic violence related offences in Northern Ireland in each of the last three years; and what sentence was imposed in each case in which no legal proceedings are active.

Paul Goggins: The PSNI are unable to provide the conviction statistics as requested. However, the following table details statistics relating to incidents, offences recorded and offences cleared(1) for domestically motivated incidents in each of the last three years.
	(1) A crime may be cleared by any of the following: taken into consideration; charged; summons issued; adult caution; adult informed warning; juvenile informed warning; juvenile restorative caution; juvenile prosecutorial diversion; under age; complainant declined to prosecute, no prosecution directed and offender died before proceedings.
	
		
			  Domestic motivation: incidents, recorded crimes and clearance rates 
			  Northern Ireland  2004-05  2005-06( 1)  1 April 2006 - 31 January 2007( 1,)( )( 2) 
			 Incidents recorded 20,959 23,059 20,131 
			 Offences recorded 8,508 10,768 8,689 
			 Offences cleared 6,201 8,350 3,711 
			  Cleared by means of:
			 Charge/Summons 1,070 2,367 2,282 
			 Other means of clearance 5,131 5,983 1,429 
			 Percentage clearance rate 72.9 77.5 42.7 
			 (1 )Breaches of non-molestation orders have been counted as offences in Northern Ireland under Home Office Counting Rules since 1 April 2005. Therefore it is not feasible to make a comparison with the figures for 2004-05. (2 )These figures are provisional and may be subject to revision.  Notes: Domestic motivated incidents cover all such occurrences, whether a crime has been committed or not. When using incident figures in conjunction with crime figures. Domestic motivated crimes are included within the incident figures, and that more than one crime may be recorded in a single incident. Domestic crime figures do not include assault on police.

Local Government: Standards

Eric Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the overall public satisfaction figures for  (a) all local authorities and  (b) each tier of local authority as collected by her Department and its predecessors' best value performance surveys were in each year that they have been collected.

Phil Woolas: The overall public satisfaction figures from the best value performance indicator surveys for England for  (a) all authorities in England and  (b) each tier of local government for the years in which these data have been collected are as follows:
	
		
			  2000-01 and 2003-04 overall satisfaction (BVPI3) results for all local authorities in England, plus 2006-07 results for single tier and county councils only — "Taking everything into account how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way authority run things?" 
			  Percentage satisfied 
			   2000-01  2003-04  2006-07 
			 All councils in England 65 55 (1)— 
			 Single tier and county council average 61 53 51 
			 County councils 62 54 50 
			 Unitary authorities 62 52 50 
			 Metropolitan boroughs 62 54 52 
			 London boroughs 55 52 54 
			 District councils 68 56 (1)— 
			 (1) No result is available yet because aggregate 2006-07 data for district councils have not been fully validated and published. Similarly, because the 2006-07 average for all councils in England uses single and upper-tier data, this figure is also not available yet. 
		
	
	These figures were published in a summary report of the 2006-07 BVPI user satisfaction survey results for upper-tier authorities only. This report can be found on the Department for Communities and Local Government website at:
	http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1506089.

British Council: Offices

John Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many British Council offices there were in  (a) Europe,  (b) the Middle East,  (c) South and Central America,  (d) Africa,  (e) North America,  (f) Asia and  (g) Australasia in (i) 2000 and (ii) 2006.

Geoff Hoon: In 2000 the British Council had a presence in 110 countries. Although there have been changes in the network the British Council still operated in 110 countries worldwide in 2006.
	
		
			  British council country operations 
			   2000  2006 
			 Europe 39 40 
			 Middle East 7 8 
			 South and Central America 12 10 
			 Africa 20 20 
			 North America 2 2 
			 Asia 2 2 
			 Australasia 28 28 
			 Total 110 110

Malaysia: Military Decorations

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the conclusions were of the consideration in 2006 by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals of the points made by those seeking to wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal.

Margaret Beckett: On 31 January 2006 the Government announced that Her Majesty the Queen had graciously approved the recommendation by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals that veterans and others eligible should exceptionally be allowed to accept the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM), offered by the King and Government of Malaysia, but that in accordance with normal policy and practice official permission to wear the medal should not be granted. Since then, a number of people have said they believe that this decision was wrong; and that those entitled to accept the medal should also be permitted formally to wear the PJM.
	Given the strength of feeling of some individuals, the committee considered the matter again very carefully. After examination of the issues involved, the policies underpinning the operation of the UK honours system and particular application of these policies in the case of the PJM, it concluded that the original decision to allow exceptions to two of the major principles of the British Honours System—the double medalling rule and the five year rule—should be upheld. Entitled individuals will continue to be allowed to accept the PJM, but there is no official permission to wear it.
	In re-affirming the decision of 31 January 2006, the committee was aware that it would disappoint those who wish to wear the PJM, but they hoped that all who had been involved would understand that the decision reflected a major exception to the normal rules on acceptance of foreign medals. Exceptions to the rules are made only in exceptional circumstances, and in reaching its decision, the committee considered the importance of British involvement in the Malaysian campaign in the histories both of Malaysia and the UK in the years 1957-66, the generous gesture by the King and Government of Malaysia, as well the principles on which the British Honours System is based. Similar exceptions were made for medals from the Saudi and Kuwaiti Governments after the First Gulf War.